Groundhog's Day Menu

Hello Groundhog's Day! This is what it looked like at our house. I know some of you had even worse. Oiy. We definitely needed some delicious food to perk things up.

Groundhog Meatloaf

Green Salad

Crust-less Mud Pie

These pictures are disappointing. Here was the overall idea: 

1) eat a groundhog

2) eat what a groundhog would eat

3) eat the groundhog's habitat

Here is my meatloaf recipe. It is my mother-in-law's recipe and it is my favorite. I swapped the beef with pork in honor of Puxatony Phil. It was quite good. I highly recommend it. I then shaped him into a groundhog. My two year old was very excited to be eating his 'paw' and found it quite horrifying that I got his 'head'. Anything to get a toddler to eat protein. 

 Meatloaf
1 lb ground beef/turkey/pork
1 egg
1/2 chopped bell pepper
6 oz. V8 (tomato juice)
1 c. oatmeal
1 chopped onion
2 Tb ketchup
salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients. Place in a loaf pan (or form into a groundhog). Bake at 350 for 1 hour. I always use a probe thermometer and cook until the temperature is appropriate for the meat I'm cooking. For beef it's about 160. See here for other meat cuts:
http://www.ochef.com/418.htm

 Do you think it looks like a groundhog? I think next time I would add a little face with olive and pepper slices or something.
I don't have recipe for my salad. Just toss some green leafy stuff in a bowl and use a store-bought vinaigrette dressing, that way it looks like a pile of grass or something.
Lastly is this crust-less mud pie, which I am sure I am not the first to come up with. All I did was make some instant pudding, let it set and then mix it with a container of thawed whipped topping. Then crushed some chocolate sandwich cookies and put them on top. Very good, very rich.

I hope everyone else enjoyed Groundhog's Day as much as I did. I'm sure we're all happy to note that the groundhog did not see his shadow. :D